Biography

Tuomas M. Mäkelä started Jääportit as his solo project in northern Finland at the autumn 1997.

First demo “Halki lumisen metsän” (self-published, 1998) and cassette album “Kauan koskematon” (Noitavasara, 1999) introduced the music style of Jääportit as simplistic darkwave or synth-ambient created in a vein of Mortiis, Arcana and Dead Can Dance, just to name few.

Tuomas has always made experiments with the sounds, find different ways and develop his approach to the creation of music. Next album “Uumenissa” (Firebox Records, 2005) contained dreamful frostbitten ambient music, painted with soothing electronic synthwaves, atmospheric and cosmic sounds. Mindy M. Heinonen made her first contribution to the band by creating beautiful water colour paintings for the album covers.

Participation to compilation album “Sonic Visions of Middle-earth” (Foreshadow, 2005) contained 15 minutes long Jääportit song drawing inspiration from J.R.R.Tolkien’s stories. Session musician J-M Kenttälä played the acoustic guitar for the song.

The 3rd full-length Jääportit album “Avarrus” (Epidemie Records, 2006) kept on the line of musical experiments as it had more rhythmic elements, electronic beats and percussion, than the earlier releases. Album contained more detailed, sophisticated sounds and violin played by Mindy M. Heinonen. The albums story was carried along and afar by sound stream recorded from a live environment.

In 2007 Jääportit took part on another compilation album “My Own Wolf: A New Approach to Ulver” (Aspherical Asphyxia, 2007) and created personal version of Ulver’s song “Gnosis”. This time Vesa Partti was asked to play electric guitar and Mindy to sing the vocals.

In 2009 Jääportit finished its 4th full-length album titled as “Voimasuo”. Album was released by Epidemie Records on the 12th of May, 2009. This wide-ranging album introduced another metamorphosis of Jääportit as combination of ambient electronica with the touch of frosty post-rock flavours.